Ever lost to a bluff?

Have you ever read that your opponent is bluffing and made the heroic call only to find out that his bluff is better than your hand?

This happened to me this weekend in a large live tourney. I had been extremely tight, having not played a hand in 1:30 hrs. I figured that my image would help me steal some pots now that the blinds were significant; With the blinds at 400/800 I had QJos in mid-late position. I raised to 2,000. Everyone quickly folded, except the BB, who was a fairly inexperienced player. He had survived to this point despite having made awful plays the whole tourney.

The flop was J,6,A with three hearts. I wasn't sure if any of my cards was a heart , but I wasn't gonna look. The BB checked and I bet 3,000. After a while, he called. The turn was the Qh, so I now was sure that none of my cards was a heart. The BB nervously bets 2,000. Damn! He's got a heart and I'm nearly drawing dead. But I sensed weakness and made the call. The river was the 10c.

Now there are a whole bunch of hands that beat me. The guy, like not knowing what to do, says: "all-in". I'm like, "there is no way I can make this call" since I can only beat a bluff. But wait a minute.... This guy looks very nervous. And, why push all-in? This is not a value bet... This guy doesn't want a call! And I called. He almost didn't even turn over his cards. He had A-2... with the damn deuce of hearts!

This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by AquamanBT: 24.11.2008 21:09.

I wouldn't ever do that call, but I read his push correctly as a bluff. He actually was betting the ace, not the flush. He didn't even know he had a flush, only after the dealer asked him to show down was that he saw the flush. It was such a bad push, because he was losing to any heart as well.

ps. I'm not saying it was a good play by me... Extremely risky and trusted my read, almost to perfection.